15 militants killed in NATO drone strike in E. Afghanistan

PARUN, Afghanistan, Jan. 22 (Xinhua) -- Up to 15 militants have been killed when a NATO drone launched an attack in eastern Afghan province of Nuristan, police said on Tuesday.

"An unmanned plane with the coalition forces attacked a suspected compound in a remote area in Bazgul area of Kamdesh district Monday evening, killing 15 militants," a senior official with the Afghan border police in eastern region, Shams-ul-Rahman, told Xinhua.

Some of the killed militants were foreign nationals, he said, without providing details on the attack in the province 180 km east of capital Kabul.

"As a result of the attack, the facility was completely destroyed in the district bordering Pakistan," he said.

The mountainous Nuristan and neighboring Kunar province has been regarded as Taliban stronghold in eastern part of the militancy-hit country.

The Taliban insurgent group, which has been waging an insurgency since its regime was toppled by a U.S.-led invasion in late 2001, has yet to confirm the deaths of their men.